1/29/08
An article in this morning’s Wall Street Journal (1/29/08, page A2) describing the changes Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D, MT) is proposing for the “stimulus” package and the possibility that said modifications might delay the bill stated:
“The political risks to both sides of the effort (to quickly pass a stimulus bill) backfiring are huge, with many people already counting on getting rebate checks this Spring.” (Emphasis mine)
“…many people already counting on getting rebate checks this Spring”!? This shell-game stimulus scheme has only been under discussion for the last three weeks or so. Legislation authorizing the rebate checks has not come out of the Senate, as the article described, let alone been reconciled with the House version and sent to the President for his signature. And people are counting on these rebate checks?
Just how stretched are people that they are “counting on” a $1,200 to $2,000 check that may or may not arrive to bail them out? Or did people, upon first hearing of any whiff of hope for such a handout from Uncle Sam, run out to charge some trendy geegaw from China and are now counting on the rebate to pay (I must have lost my head; given that we are dealing with the American consumer, I should have not said “to pay…,” but, rather, “to make the minimum payment on…”) the Visa bill when it arrives? Can the American people really be this obtuse when it comes to personal finances?
If the answer is yes, and I suspect it is, this country is in more trouble than even I thought.
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